For German readers: some thoughts and notes and quotes on the music I'm listening - to be found
on my new blog:
ubus-notizen.blogspot.com

Also check out the great new, independent magazine get happy!?, reporting on music, movies and more:
gethappymag.de

Friday, November 30, 2007

Lester Young Live (10/16) - Spring 1952 Sessions (For Europeans Only #8)



Not much I can say... it's Pres, it's getting later in his career, he was different by then, but still good, contrary to those myths surrounding his career... the next volume will have more from this band (but with Knight identified as pianist - I'm not familiar with such early Wynton Kelly to dare a guess... even less so as I don't know Knight at all...). I mentioned already that Aaron Bell had a short spell with Duke Ellington's band in the early 60s, and Lee Abrams, around this time, was on that great 1953 trio session(s) of Al Haig. Not exactly well-known guys, but most definitely thorough pros at their game!

Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order
Disc 10 / 1952


April 25, 1952
Lester Young Quintet
Birdland, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; Earl Knight or Wynton Kelly p; Aaron Bell b; Lee Abrams d
1. Neenah (Young) 4:17
2. A Ghost Of A Chance (Young-Washington-Crosby) 3:07
3. In A Little Spanish Town (Lewis-Wayne-Young) 7:29
4. Destination Moon (?) 6:36
5. Lester Leaps In (Young) 3:21

May 2, 1952
Lester Young Quintet
Birdland, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; Earl Knight or Wynton Kelly p; Aaron Bell b; Lee Abrams d
6. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 5:01
7. ‘Deed I Do (Hirsch-Rose) 7:24
8. How High The Moon (Morgan Lewis) 5:21
9. Pennies From Heaven (Johnston-Burke) 2:38

May 3, 1952
Lester Young Quintet
Birdland, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; Earl Knight or Wynton Kelly p; Aaron Bell b; Lee Abrams d
10. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 5:34
11. ‘Deed I Do (Hirsch-Rose) 6:54


Monday, November 26, 2007

Lester Young Live (9/16) - 1951-1952 with John Lewis, Hank Jones, Jo Jones, Max Roach (For Europeans Only #7)



Here's the last date with John Lewis, a date with Earl Knight, about whom I don't know anything, and a single JATP track with Hank Jones, Ray Brown and the late Max Roach (oh hell, if only Hank Jones will stay on a while!)


Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order
Disc 9 /1951-1952


May 19, 1951
Lester Young Quintet
Birdland, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; John Lewis p; Gene Ramey; Jo Jones d
1. Indiana (Hanley-MacDonald) 7:23
2. A Ghost Of A Chance (Young-Washington-Crosby) 3:53
3. How High The Moon (Morgan Lewis) 6:28
4. D.B. Blues (Young) 3:13

August 4, 1951
Lester Young Quintet
Birdland, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; Earl Knight p; Gene Ramey or Aaron Bell b; Jo Jones or Joe Harris d
5. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Theme) (Young) / Up ‘N Adam (Young) 5:12
6. Blue And Sentimental (Basie-David-Livingston) 3:12
7. Neenah (Young) 4:56
8. Lester Leaps In (Young) / Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Theme) (Young) 6:09

April 6, 1952
Jazz At The Philharmonic
Salle Pleyel, Paris, France

Lester Young ts; Hank Jones p; Ray Brown b; Max Roach
9. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) 4:02


Friday, November 23, 2007

Count Basie w/Prez

Over on another blog, you can find some early Basie, in form of Chronological Classics discs, actually the first four of Basie's own band (the Bennie Moten material is sometimes included in Basie reissue series, such as the great French Masters of Jazz series, and to be sure it's absolutely essential, too!)

The way to get the Decca sides is by buying this box set (very cheap on Amazon US right now!), it's from the early 90s, but it sounds alright, and it has the best documentation you'll get, plus it includes a couple of alternates that aren't on the Classics. After the Decca period, things get pretty drab... Columbia has so far (and will forever, I'm afraid) refused to do the right thing and release their complete Basie sessions in any form (there were two French vinyl boxes, I think, but I'm too young to have them...), so Classics is the best way there is. I did mention the Masters of Jazz series, these were much better, including live material, alternate takes, and the best sound you could possibly get, but these are long gone... I managed to get a couple some years ago, and some others have been up on the late demonoid bit-torent tracker, but I'm still missing quite a bit. The other route to take is Definitive, they did two very crappy boxes in pretty bad sound, but at least all the master takes are there.
Then there's the RCA material, also done by Definitive, and there's a Japanese box, too. Those weren't the best years of the Count, alas.



Columbia did release a great 4CD compilation though, also on sale on US amazon right now. Sound is much better than on any other release of the same material, but it's far from complete, with more than one disc dedicated to (almost all of) the small group sessions Basie was involved with at Columbia's labels (including the fabulous "Jones-Smith Inc" session), then you get almost two discs of studio material, and on the fourth disc you get live material, including stellar Lester Young, and all three titles ever done by Billie Holiday with the Basie orchestra. Pretty nice, all in all, but not complete, and hence not enough...

Anyway, this is all material that would fit into my "For Europeans Only" series as it's all in public domain on our side of the pond, and I thought I'd just point out that some of it is available on that other site!



Thursday, November 22, 2007

Lester Young Live (7-8/16) - 1950/1951 with Jesse Drakes, Ted Kelly & John Lewis, Gene Ramey, Jo Jones (For Europeans Only #6)



These sessions are fairly well-known, I think. The quartet dates with John Lewis have been released in various forms, for instance on the Italian bootleg label Jazz View.
I assume it's complete here, or at least as complete as it gets!

Fabulous stuff, to be sure!

Leave some comments, post some impressions, please!


Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order


Disc 7 /1950-1951


March 15, 1950
Lester Young Band
Royal Roost, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Ted Kelly tb; Lester Young ts; unknown p; Al McKibbon b; Buddy Rich d
1. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) 5:46
2. Be Bop Boogie (Young) 3:14
3. D. B. Blues (Young) 2:21
4. Just You, Just Me (Greer-Klages) 3:05
5. Sunday (Coots-Grey) 4:17

prob. April 2, 1950
Lester Young Quintet
Chicago

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; unknown p, b, d
6. Tea For Two (Youmans-Caesar) 4:32
7. Blues in D-Flat (aka D.B. Blues) (Young) 6:25
8. Blue And Sentimental (Basie-David-Livingston) 7:18
9. Lester Leaps In (Young) 5:56

January 6, 1951
Lester Young Quartet
Birdland, New York City

Lester Young ts; John Lewis p; Gene Ramey b; Jo Jones d
10. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 3:47
11. Three Little Words (Kalmar-Ruby) 5:30
12. Neenah (Young) 4:25
13. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) 5:27
14. Lester Leaps In (Young) 5:06


Disc 8 /1951

January 13, 1951
Lester Young Quartet
Birdland, New York City

Lester Young ts; John Lewis p; Gene Ramey b; Jo Jones d
1. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 4:01
2. Too Marvellous For Words (Whiting-Mercer) 6:00
3. Indiana (Hanley-MacDonald) 4:33

January 20, 1951
Lester Young Quartet
Birdland, New York City

Lester Young ts; John Lewis p; Gene Ramey b; Jo Jones d
4. Neenah (Young) 3:38
5. A Ghost Of A Chance (Young-Washington-Crosby) 3:43
6. Lester Leaps In (Young) 5:00
7. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 4:37

February 24, 1951
Lester Young Quartet
Birdland, New York City

Lester Young ts; John Lewis p; Gene Ramey b; Jo Jones d
8. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 3:45
9. These Foolish Things (Morrell-Strachey-Link) 3:25
10. Neenah (Young) 3:45
11. Lester Leaps In (Young) 4:24
12. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Young) 1:04

March 17, 1951
Lester Young Quartet
Birdland, New York City

Lester Young ts; John Lewis p; Gene Ramey b; Jo Jones d
13. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Theme) (Young) / Up ‘N Adam (Young) 4:22
14. Too Marvellous For Words (Whiting-Mercer) 4:52
15. Neenah (Young) 4:27
16. Ghost Of A Chance (Young-Washington-Crosby) 3:58
17. Lester Leaps In (Young) 5:01


Saturday, November 17, 2007

Lester Young Live (4-6/16) - 1950 monster gig with Kenny Drew & Jo Jones (For Europeans Only #5)



Here's the weekend's instalment, a 3-in-1 package, featuring a whole lot of music - and there seems to be even more from these gigs, or that gig, if it was indeed just one, which I doubt if I see the amound of music recorded... Pres is backed here by Kenny Drew and Jo Jones, the bassist's identity isn't clear (Leroy Jackson or Aaron Bell, the later of whom I know from Ellington, well at least from the "Duke Ellington Meets John Coltrane" album on Impulse), and Jesse Drakes is on trumpet - he'll be part of Pres' band on future uploads here, too. Not a great player, really, but good enough, for sure...


Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order (Discs 4-6)

February 22, 1950
Lester Young Quintet
Savoy Ballroom, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; Kenny Drew p; Leroy Jackson or Aaron Bell b; Jo Jones d


Disc 4 /1950

1. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Theme) (Young) 0:53
2. Neenah (Young) 3:53
3. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) 7:20
4. These Foolish Things (Morrell-Strachey-Link) 4:09
5. Lester Leaps In (Young) 3:11
6. Sunday (Coots-Grey) 7:51
7. Destination Moon (?) 8:48
8. Mean To Me (Turk Ahlert) 4:36
9. Pennies From Heaven (Johnston-Burke) 6:52
10. Stardust (H. Carmichael) 7:39
11. Three Little Words (Kalmar-Ruby) 6:46


Disc 5 /1950

1. On The Sunny Side Of The Street (Fields-McHugh) 6:03
2. Oh, Lady, Be Good (G. & I. Gershwin) 6:32
3. ‘Deed I Do (Hirsch-Rose) 6:31
4. Almost Like Being In Love (Lerner-Loewe) 5:02
5. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) 5:03
6. I Got Rhythm (Gerswhin) 12:58
7. Up ‘N Adam (Young) 5:30
8. Perdido (Juan Tizol) 10:56
9. One O’Clock Jump (Count Basie) 5:57


Disc 6 /1950

1. D. B. Blues (Young) 10:49
2. ‘Deed I Do (Hirsch-Rose) 8:54
3. Untitled Blues (Young) 2:22
4. Lester Leaps In (Young) 6:10
5. Blues with Bridge (Young) 6:49
6. Seventh Avenue Romp (?) 6:59
7. In A Little Spanish Town (Lewis-Wayne-Young) 10:39
8. Oh, Lady, Be Good (G. & I. Gershwin) 8:30


The above date is spoken on one of the source recordings, but it appears that these titles derive from more than one night.
More tunes are known to be recorded at these date(s) than on discs 4-6


Friday, November 16, 2007

Lester Young Live (3/16) - more 1948 Royal Roost airchecks with Roy Haynes & Junior Mance (For Europeans Only #4)

Here's the third instalment, more from the 1948 band at the Royal Roost. This may not look like a great band, with both Jesse Drakes and Ted Kelly not exactly well-known, but in the rhythm section there's one of the young musicians who's star was to rise bigtime soon after these dates: Roy Haynes! And on all but the first dates, there's Junior Mance on piano.

I'd welcome a bit of discussion and some reactions here, folks! I see there are quite a few downloads of this material, please step out of anonymity for a second and leave a comment if you feel like!



The weekend's instalment will consist of three discs, 4-6, all taken from the same session(s)!


Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order
Disc 3 /1948-1949


December 4, 1948
Lester Young Band
Royal Roost, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Ted Kelly tb; Lester Young ts; Freddie Jefferson p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d
1. Be Bop Boogie (Young) 4:09
2. I’m Confessin’ (Neiburg-Daugherty-Reynolds) 3:21
3. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) 5:46
4. How High The Moon (Morgan Lewis) 4:37
5. Sunday (Coots-Grey) 4:15
6. Jumping With Symphony Sid (Theme) (Young) 0:55

March 19, 1949
Lester Young Band
Royal Roost, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Jerry Elliott tb; Lester Young ts; Junior Mance p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d
7. Bebop Boogie (Young) 3:16
8. These Foolish Things (Morrell-Strachey-Link) 3:30
9. D. B. Blues (Young) 2:26
10. Just You, Just Me (Greer-Klages) 3:07

March 26, 1949
Lester Young Band
Royal Roost, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Jerry Elliott tb; Lester Young ts; Junior Mance p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d
11. Lester Leaps In (Young) 2:23
12. She’s Funny That Way (Moret-Whiting) 3:40
13. Lavender Blue (Daniel-Morey) 4:10
14. Tea For Two (Youmans-Caesar) 3:00

April 9, 1949
Lester Young Band
Royal Roost, New York City

Jesse Drakes t; Jerry Elliott tb; Lester Young ts; Junior Mance p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d
15. Lavender Blue (Daniel-Morey) 5:07
16. A Ghost Of A Chance (Young-Washington-Crosby) 3:29
17. Mean To Me (Turk Ahlert) 3:21
18. Sunday (Coots-Grey) 3:06

MC on all tracks: Symphony Sid


Dr. Lonnie Smith - Zurich 2007 - now on dime

This was one of the best concert experiences of this year, the Turbanator rocked the house!

Here's a short review I posted elsewhere:

Holy smokes! Smith was da shit, as they say!!!!!!!!
The band really got it together in the second (almost 90 minute! the first was more than an hour already) set. They did some standards (Sweet and Lovely, Willow Weep for Me, a beautiful alto feature Harlem Nocturne), the Beatles' Come Together in the funkiest ever version, and several Smith originals - great great music, loud and stinky as that kind of music ought to be! (I did some thinking and I'm quite sure Larry Goldings' Trio was the only organ group I've heard live before... now that was a whole different thing last night!)

The encore closes disc 1, as the second set + encore was too long for one CDR.

The sound rating is conservative, the sound was shitty at the concert, and I think I caught it about as good as possible with my equipment.

**********************************************************

Dr. Lonnie Smith & The Original Grooves
jazznojazz 2007
Zurich (Switzerland), Theater an der Sihl
November 3, 2007


Dr. Lonnie Smith - organ & voice
Miguel Martinez - alto sax
Martien Oster - guitar
Gijs Dijkhuizen - drums


CD1/78:51

Set1/67:36
1. Stage Intro + Dr. Lonnie Smith Warmup (2:14)
2. Sweet and Lovely (Arnheim-LeMare-Tobias) 9:34
3. Back Track (Smith) 16:29
4. The Whip (Smith) > Ann MO (17:57)
5. unknown > Ann MO (8:25)
6. Scream (Smith) 12:55

Encore from Set2
7. unknown (11:15)


CD2/Set2/76:18

1. Applause + Warmup (0:55)
2. Willow Weep for Me (Ann Ronell) 22:32 >
3. Mambo (George Shearing) > Ann MO (18:52)
4. Harlem Nocturne (Earle Hagen) 7:05
5. A Smooth One (Charlie Christian) > Ann MO (10:17)
6. Come Together (Lennon-McCartney) 16:34


TT: 155:09

Sound: B+
Source: audience recording (mono to MD)
Lineage: crappy Sony mic > MD > analogue to HD > Cool Edit Pro > FLAC (8,asb,verify)
Taped, transferred & shared by ubu


Note:
This is the complete set, taped from the gallery to the side of the stage (only location where it was possible to tape at all, on the floor it was standing room only and very crowded).
I cut some atmosphere before and some applause after the encore, would have been a bit too long to fit on one disc with set 1, otherwise

Please help identifying CD1#5 and CD1#7 - both are very familiar!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Lester Young Live (2/16) - with Buck Clayton, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet & others (For Europeans Only #3)

So Volume 1 was mostly the well-known (I assume) soundtrack of Gjon Mili's film "Jammin' the Blues" and some added rarities by the Lee & Lester Young band, as well as the two absolutely stunning tracks by the piano-less quintet of Pres, Shad Collins, John Collins, Nick Fenton and Doc West.
Here, for starters you'll get a terrific Jubilee All Stars date with Buck Clayton, Coleman Hawkins and others. On we go with some JATP again with Clayton, Hawkins, and also Illinois Jacquet. Then, to end this volume, we get the first recordings of Pres' regular working unit from 1948, live from the Royal Roost.


From "The Sound of Jazz" (l. to r.): Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan

A note on Pres and JATP: I don't think that all of the JATP material with Pres that was eventually collected in the great 10CD 1944-1949 JATP box on Verve was included in this 16CD set - the JATP discography is a mess, if you compare the info from the Verve box, which I assume is as well-researched as can be, with the crappy info on jazzdisco.org (see links on the right), you'll see what chaos there is... I have not done any comparison myself, but maybe once these 16 volumes are up, I might check and add additional material later.


Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order
Disc 2 /1946-1948



Ca. April 22, 1946
Jubilee All Stars
AFRS Jubilee #190/192, Hollywood, CA
Buck Clayton t; Coleman Hawkins & Lester Young ts; Kenny Kersey p; Irving Ashby g; Billy Hadnott b; Shadow Wilson d
1. Sweet Georgia Brown (Pinkard-Bernie-Casey) 8:20
2. Oh, Lady Be Good (G. & I. Gershwin) 4:06
3. I Got Rhythm (Gershwin) 8:33

May 27, 1946
Jazz At The Philharmonic
Carnegie Hall, New York City
Buck Clayton t; Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet & Lester Young ts; Kenny Kersey p; Curley Russell b; J. C. Heard d
4. Oh, Lady Be Good (G. & I. Gershwin) 10:45
5. Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie-Pinkard-Casey) 7:36
These two titles were eventually released on the Verve 10CD JATP box

November 27, 1948
Lester Young Band
Royal Roost, New York City
Jesse Drakes t; Ted Kelly tb; Lester Young ts; Freddie Jefferson p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d
6. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Young) 0:44
7. Lester Leaps In (Young) 3:05
8. A Ghost Of A Chance (Young-Washington-Crosby) 4:36
9. Just You, Just Me (Greer-Klages) 5:09
10. Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie-Pinkard-Casey) 5:09
same date, add Kai Winding tb; Allen Eager ts; Hank Jones p; Ray Brown b; Ella Fitzgerald voc; probably omit Jefferson and Briscoe, maybe Kelly
11. How High The Moon (Morgan Lewis) / Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (Young) 7:17
MC: Symphony Sid



Abdullah Ibrahim - solo recital in Zurich



Last night I went to hear the surviving master of South African jazz in a solo recital in Zurich, Switzerland (which happens to be my hometown, for those who didn't know). He was scheduled to play a 75 minute set at the Neumünster church (which is actually in walking distance from our place), but the concert started at 8 p.m. and Ibrahim played until 10:20 p.m. - clearly he was in a good mood! And he got two standing ovations between sets (roughly 75, 30 and 20 minutes). The first part started out a bit muted, very soft and slow, but after a few minutes I was deeply inside his music. He went on improvising in a soft way, mostly at slow tempos, but the music developed into kind of a maelstrom, pulling me in deeper and deeper. 
In the second improvisation, he used some motifs from his famous song-like compositions, with a little groove building up here and there, but still always at slow tempos and masterfully building his improvisation. The third set then he opened with Duke Ellington's hymn "Come Sunday", seguing into a Monk tune, some of his own tunes, and also playing "Memories of You" (see his CD "African Sun" for a marvellous version of that standard, in quartet with Kippie Moeketsi). That third set was where the "jazz" part came in, with Ibrahim playing more rhythmically, and eventually swinging hard, but still at a very relaxed, slow tempo. In short: a very fascinating and mesmerising evening!

PS: alas my recording device did not work, so don't wait for this to show up on dime!

trolls

have been hitting - I hope this is hidden well enough to be safe!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Woody Shaw's "Song of Songs" and Concord Music Group

So after all the ranting you have heard from me here and elsewhere, here's a good word about Concord, for a change! By chance (ok, not quite - by googling the info and a cover scan for a vinyl-rip MP3 version of Woody Shaw's "Song of Songs", a disc I had given up ever being able to find and thus went for the recent share on another blog) I happened to see that Concord had that by now - I thought - OOP and hard to find Woody Shaw disc up for takers on their site. I remembered from their special cleanout sale from last year that they'd only ship in the US, but I thought heck why not give it a try, and indeed they do now also cater to the international customer.

And now the best news: the order, sent in three hours ago, has already been shipped!

Here's the Woody Shaw disc, and a quick search yielded some other things that I tought were OOP, like the two Gil Melle CDs, and all of Gigi Gryce's OJC CDs!

Lester Young Live (1/16) - Some Lester a day keeps the doctor away - For Europeans Only #2

Here's the first in a long-ish series of Lester Young uploads. I might some day put some of it up on dime in lossless, too. But as some of this material has seen commercial release, even if only on Chronogical Classics, Masters of Jazz or similar series, it will be rather complicated to figure out what exactly would be allowed there, and what not. So for a beginning, here's VBR MP3s of about as much live Prez you can hope for...

This is a continuation of my little "for Europeans only" series - this material is all out of copy right in Europe, so it's perfectly legal for anyone to share it, even sell it (as those shady labels like Lonehill, Definitive, Gambit etc. do). If you have any doubts or moral constraints, just stay away, please!

This Lester Young Series will consist of 16 CDs, taken from a Japanese Set (also available in LP form, long OOP of course). I will possibly add some bonus items later, too. And it might take me a whole while to put all of this up, so I suggest you subscribe to the RSS-feed not to lose touch if I end up in limbo for a while again... (though limbus, coolest place between heaven and hell, has now officially been abolished... it wasn't fair anyway to let the early-borns and non-christened children stay in a... well, subsidiary of hell... anyway, now there's a room for rent in hell, a chance not to miss! And play "Limbo Jazz" from the Impulse album Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins for some cool sounds! And add "The Ricitic" and you'll sure be in heaven!)



The first and so far only instalment of my little "For Europeans only" series was dedicated to the great Lee Wiley, the files have been deleted by now (Rapidshare has changed its policy anway, much less will stay online, and I'm not buying an account, so act quick if you want this!). If there's demand, I can also upload my Wiley compilation again, find all info in this older post.

Lester Young – Live and private recordings in chronological order
Disc 1 /1941-1946


July 6, 1938
Jam Session
WNEW Studios, New York City

Benny Goodman cl; Lester Young ts; Teddy Wilson p; others unknown (?)
1. unidentified (?) 3:31

Between February 27 and March 17, 1941 (February 15, 1941?)
Lester Young & his Band
Manhattan Center, New York City

Shad Collins t; Lester Young ts; John Collins g; Nick Fenton b; Doc West d
2. Tickle Toe (Young) 5:25
3. Taxi War Dance (Basie-Young) 5:19

December 2, 1941
Lester & Lee Young’s Band
Club Capri, Hollywood

Paul Campbel t; Lester Young & Bumps Myers ts; Jimmy Rowles p; Red Callender b; Lee Young d
4. Untitled Original (Young) / Blues (Theme) 3:36

1941/1942
Unknown Band
Trouville Club, Los Angeles (Porter: prob. Club in Hollywood)

Lester Young ts, prob. voc; others unknown
5. Just A Little Bit South of North Carolina (Skylar-Cannon-Shaftel) 3:04

August, 1944
Jammin’ the Blues
Hollywood/Los Angeles, CA

Harry Edison t; Lester Young ts; Marlowe Morris p; Barney Kessel g; Red Callender b; Sid Catlett d
6. The Midnight Symphony (Young) 3:02 Morris, Young, Edison, Young
Young ts; Morris p; Kessel g; Callender b; Catlett d; Marie Bryant voc
7. On The Sunny Side of The Street 3:14 Bryant, Young, Bryant (with Young)
(Fields-McHugh)
Edison t; Dickie Wells tb; Young ts & Illinois Jacquet ts; Morris p; Kessel g; Callender b; Catlett d
8. Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie-Pinkard-Casey) 5:18 Morris, Young, Edison, Kessel, Catlett, Young
Edison t; Wells tb; Young ts; Morris p; Kessel g; Callender b; Catlett d; Bryant voc
9. If I Could Be With You (Johnson-Creamer) 2:12 Young, Wells, Bryant, Edison, Young
Edison t; Wells tb; Young & Jacquet ts; Morris p; Kessel g; Callender b; Catlett d
10. Blues For Marvin (Young) 4:49 Young, Wells, Edison, Kessel, Jacquet, Young
Edison t; Young & Jacquet ts; Morris p; Kessel g; John Simmons b; Jo Jones d
11. Jammin’ The Blues (Young) 4:12 Young, Kessel, Edison, Morris, Simmons, Jacquet
12. Jammin’ The Blues 4:56 same solo order
The identity of the drummers on these tracks is not confirmed (see notes of Lester Young MoJ Vol. 6)

Prob. early April 1946
Lester Young with King Cole Trio & Buddy Rich
AFRS Jubilee #184, Hollywood, CA

Lester Young ts; Nat “King” Cole p; Oscar Moore g; Johnny Miller b; Buddy Rich d
13. These Foolish Things (Morrell-Strachey-Link) 4:35
14. Lester Leaps In (Young) 3:33
The booklet gives ca. March 20, 1946 as recording date for this item.

Prob. early April 1946
Lester Young Quartet
AFRS Jubilee #190, Hollywood, CA

Lester Young ts; Kenny Kersey p; Billy Hadnott b; Shadow Wilson d
15. D. B. Blues (Young) 4:10


Erika Stucky - Willisau 2002 - now on dime

Here's a great concert in its entirety - please check it out!
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=170507

Stucky is a Swiss-Californian singer mixing various influences to her own special brew. 60s psychedelia (she was invited for the second edition of Christy Doran/Fredy Studer's Jimi Hendrix project and handled those songs in a fantastic way!), traditional Swiss music, jazz, folk, whatever fits in - the result is something very special, music like you've never heard it before, I'm sure!

**********************************************************

Erika Stucky Bubble-Family
Jazzfestival Willisau 2002 - Impros & Voices II
Willisau (CH)
September 1, 2002 (evening)

Erika Stucky - voice
Luli Gurgauer - keys
Oli Harting - guitar & banjo
Hansueli Tischhauser - guitar
Vonne Geraedts - vocals & trumpet
Jean-Jacques Pedretti - trombone, alphorn
Robert Morgenthaler - trombone, alphorn
Peter Horisberger - drums
Martin Schumacher - accordion, baritone sax
Jon Sass - tuba
Knuth Jenssen - guitar, bass, keys, vocals
Rodolfo Ernst - ?
Urs Amstutz - ?

*** complete concert ***

1. (5:43) >
2. (5:51)
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TT: 71:17

Sound: A
Recording engineer: Martin Pearson
Source: DRS 2 live broadcast / 2002-09-02
Lineage: FM > minidisc > analogue to HD > GoldWave > FLAC (8,asb,verify)
Taped, transferred & seeded by ubu

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

r.i.p. Jack Wilson (1936-2007)



I have been a bit confused about this, there has been some discussion on organissimo, but only today I realized it's actually a fact that Jack Wilson has died early in October - the following post from another board has been repeated, in this recent organissimo discussion:

Jack Wilson, a Jazz pianist and composer who played tenor saxophone, vibraphone and organ, with such musical luminaries as Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Jackie McLean, Sammy Davis Jr. and Sonny & Cher, died Friday, October 5, 2007, in Northport, NY.

His death, at the Northport Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, was caused by complications of diabetes, said his wife, Sandie Boerum-Wilson, of Sayville, NY.

Here's the correct wiki entry (there's another one for an english pianist of the same name).

I love Wilson's album Something Personal (Blue Note, reissued on CD in their Connoisseur Series). Wilson has another disc out on Blue Note, Easterly Winds (also part of the Connoisseur Series), which I still have to get. And Freshsound Records have reissued his fine album done for Vault in 1966, Ramblin' (out of print, alas).

Monday, November 12, 2007

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Alive and kickin'

Just a short note to let everyone know I'm still around and kickin', alas very busy with other things, mostly not music-related.

*****

I did catch some nice musicians at this year's jazznojazz festival in Zurich, though.

First I saw Susanne Abbuehl and her band with guest Michel Portal (I taped this and put it up on dime). The music was, well... as Susanne said during her Umea concert (October 2006, I got it off dime) she does "rubato music", and to be honest, it doesn't work that well in a live setting, even less so in such a big hall (the EWZ in Zurich, a used-to-be factory building). Anyway, she has a great, warm voice, and her band is very sympathetic: Christof May on clarinets and Wolfert Brederode on piano and harmonium have been with her for fifteen years now, and the new face, Lucas Niggli, has taken Samuel Rohrer's chair on drums and percussion - he provided many highlights, bringing in a bit of live and a bit of fun to the whole proceedings. I was all the more surprised then, how much I liked the music when I played it again at home the next night - beautiful music that simply doesn't work half as good on stage than it does work at home... guest Michel Portal was great to see, however, doing some fantastic solos and stuff (I used to play some clarinet, too, eons ago, so this was really fun)!
Then two days later I went to see Dr. Lonnie Smith appearing for two sets in the free entrance series of the festival, at a smaller venue. It was packed (standing room only) and they guys were "on"! The first set was rather a mess, I thought, but the second was smokin'! His fellow musicians were young Dutch guys and they did pretty well, and obviously enjoyed the company they were in! The Doctor's version of the old Beatles chestnut "Come Together" was by far the funkiest take I ever heard of that old song! Definitely a night I'll remember! (Taped it was, yes yes, of course! But not transferred yet, give me a few more days, please, and then check dime!)
The night wasn't finished just yet, as when I was to leave for home (it was midnight by then, Smith had played two sets at 70 and 90 minutes!) I was given a free entrance ticket for the closing show of this year's festival, by Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca and his band, including woodwinds player Javier Zalba (alto & soprano sax, clarinet & flute), who was a joy to see and hear! Fonseca I got to know thanks to dime of the good zio lupo on dime, who upped the Marciac concert from August of this year, and ever since I took a vow not to miss a future Zurich appearance... I would have missed it for lack of the Swiss equivalent of eurozlotys, so I was overjoyed to get a free ticket! I stood right in front at the stage for most of the 90 minutes of a very enjoyable set. The music of Fonseca is very joyful, upbeat, mixing Cuban, Mexican (bolero), jazz, and some arab/mediterranean/andalous influences. Mostly, he's not doing the hyper-virtuoso latin-jazz stuff that I find so tiresome (think Sandoval, Chucho Valdes - not that they're bad, but they're not for me).

*****

So that's one of the things I did in recent weeks. Another is I religiously visited as much of the on-going series of films dedicated to the late Michelangelo Antonioni at Zurich's Filmpodium.
For the first time, I had the chance to catch any of Antonioni's early films (any, besides his episode "Tentato di suicido", in L'amore in città), namely his adaption of a great story by Cesare Pavese, Le amiche, as well as Il grido, which features the first Antonionian hero (embodied by Steve Cochran). The only other early film that was part of the series, Cronaca di un amore, was on while I was still in Paris, in the first week of October.
Then I caught for the fourth and fifth time (or fifth and sixth?) both L'avventura and L'eclisse, two of the greatest films ever made, in my opinion. Monica Vitti, to me, is one of the most stunning actresses ever in these two! I missed La notte, alas, but that one I've seen several times before, too. Then I caught la Vitti again in Il deserto rosso, a film I hadn't seen before. While it doesn't nearly compare to the other three, Vitti is still fabulous - the film is taylored arund her, it seems.
Both Blow Up and Zabriskie Point I skipped this time - neither of them is nearly as good as the great ones (those being L'avventura, La notte, L'eclisse). I went to see the documentary about China, though, Chung Kuo - Cina, and it was more than just a pleasant surprise. Then this week I caught Professione: Reporter, the first film where Nicholson didn't annoy the sh*t out of me and a very beautiful film, all in all. Much, much better than I'd have expected. Also Maria Schneider is great here, much better than on the side of Brando in Last Tango in Paris, in my opinion.
Then I did catch the film Eros, with three episodes by Antonioni (crap! utter crap! embarassing! what a sorry end to his career!), Steven Soderberg (good fun, stylishly done), and Wong Kar-Wai (a treasure! actually a whole film on its own).
Now what remains is Identificazione di una donna and Al di là delle nuvole. Expectations are low... but these are rarely ever to be seen on the big screen (I still prefer that by far to TV/DVD).

Some reflections on Antonioni posted on my preferred jazz hangout:

***

Upon my return from my Paris visit, first thing I did was go to the movies, catching first Antonioni's Le amiche (based on a probably superior story by Cesare Pavese, though it's been a long time that I read it) - pretty good film, all in all, but some scenes were a bit... well, it does show it's age a bit, and the language of Antonioni's big films (starting with "L'avventura") isn't yet fully developped.
Then I stayed on to join mère ubu and we caught King Vidor's Duel in the Sun - now there's a ridiculously bad film for you!

*

of the early feature ones, plus one I missed as I was in Paris, and they also don't show that weird one - I don't know it, though - Il misterio di Oberwald or what's it called again).

Anyway, I already mentioned Le amiche - pretty good, based on a great short story by Cesare Pavese.

Then I saw Il grido, again a first for me. Seems the main character is the first truly "antonionian" "hero" (weird word... if there are any heroic characters in his films, it would have to be the women, but definitely not the men!).

I found these two rather interesting, as sort of an hors d'oeuvre for the big films to follow. Parts of the language and style of Antonioni is there, already, but it hasn't fully blossomed yet.

That first fully finished masterpiece is of course L'avventura from 1960, one of my most favourite of all films. I caught it again with mère ubu and another friend, both of whom hadn't seen it before, and gee I was astonished once again. The soundtrack is one of the most outstanding I know, the images are plain beauty... it there's something about it that hurts, it's that beauty! The beauty that lies in the loneliness, in the "not having to" (compete with social expectancies, fulfill others wishes for love, whatever).
And of course Monica Vitti is the most beautiful actress ever (ok, maybe Delphine Seyrig in Resnais' L'année dernière à Marienbad is similarly stunning in her mystery)

*

On my trip of (re-)discovering the films of Michelangelo Antonioni, I had the rare chance to see his documentary Chung Kuo - Cina from 1972. It is merely a documentation of what he sees, not much as far as analysis goes (admittedly so, though - he states that the Chinese are much too mysterious for him to grasp within the time and very limited access given to them, this sentence from the beginning of the film is quoted in an IMDB comment: "We have just wanted to get a picture of China, we can't offer more"). Still, it's extremely strong, as far as the images go, and the mere observation is very fascinating to see.
Also Antonioni himself does the narration in a very charming way. The images alone, of men, women, children, old and young, of industry and remote rural areas, of villages and the huge cities of Bejing and Shanghai, as well as of another old city whose name escapes me, with a dense net of canals, similar to Venice, made it a very intense experience.
There isn't much music in the film, but it has been overseen by Luciano Berio - mostly it's almost a verité approach, using chantings and some original chinese music, played - like that it sounds, at least - by small transistors and picked up by the camera microphones, just as the usual "real" sounds.

I have also caught L'eclisse yet once more. It's right up there with L'avventura, sort of a mix between a poem in film and a mathematical essai - utterly fascinating! (With some stoopid/weak/of its time moments, alas, but in the end these are needed to to make the bare-bones story work at all).

From now on, it will all be new to me: Il deserto rosso, Professione: reporter, and maybe one or two of the late ones (they skip at least one of those weird ones, the one with Vitti in it again, I think). Not sure I need to catch Zabriskie Point again... would like to see the ending again, but other than that I found it merely an ok film, not much more. Blow Up is the last really good one, to me. [EDIT: NEEDS CORRECTION! IT'S Professione: reporter!]

*

I'm looking forward a lot to finally catch Il deserto rosso next Saturday (and probably again Wednesday 31st), but from the ones I know, L'avventura and L'eclisse are the greatest, and they're among the greatest films ever made. La notte is a notch behind - more conventional music (albeit by Giorgio Gaslini! but the abstract music by Giovanni Fusco in the other two is a lot more fascinating).

Anyway, allow me some remarks:

General: don't get put off by the usual readings of Antonioni's films (alyways meaning this trilogy) being about "lack of communication" and "Entfremdung" (alienation? estrangement?). That way of watching these films will hopefully soon be put ad acta. The films are mainly - to me, at least - films about pretty normal stories - the beginning, frailty, end of love, about joy and sadness. There's no need to over-emphasize the "heaviness" of what the films deal with - it's nothing heavy, it's just normal life in its sad beauty and joyful sadness.

Some technical stuff, aspects that make the films as special as they are, just some lose comments (I'm no film historian, don't know the correct terminology and technical vocabulary):
Camera: angles, how if frees itself from following the main characters, goes with others in between, is playful, at times almost in a childish/naïve way. Special thing to note: the double 180 degree turn on the volcanic island, when Vitti goes outside and Ferzetti follows her, on their way back to the small hut, she almost falls, he catches her arm, camera turns twice - a very fascinating moment!
Sountrack: totally emancipated - you'll see on the part of L'avventura that's situated on that volcanic island. Sometimes you hear naturalist sounds of the waves of the ocean, mixed with voices etc, sometimes the ocean totally disappears and you hear only artificial sounds. The solo motives (clarinet, flute) that turn up are kind of haunting yet in a very abstract way.
Vitti: she's just one of the most special actresses of that time, embodying a new type of woman - independent, cool, self-conscious yet fragile, but sort of "in the know", while the men (Delon in L'eclisse and Ferzetti and a zombie-like Rabal in L'avventura) seem to struggle with themselves, seem to be sort of lost (the main character in "Il grido" is actually behaving most normal/sensible at those moments where he thinks he's totally lost it...). Anyway I guess it's Vitti who plays the main part in the exchanged roles of gender - she looks after a guy and also whistles after a police man in L'eclisse, hiding behind a tree making Delon look ridiculous... so generally, she's not just a new type, but also the traditional roles are exchanged alltogether (that applies less to L'avventura though).
Cadrage: there are tons of stunning little things to discover, like the scene in the end where you can see Ferzetti's back (dressed in a black suit) and Vitti (black dress) stretching out her (white) hand to reach for him - some stunning stuff!

And one last remark, contrary to the old (hopefully soon to be old) way of interpretating the films, there are moments of everyday luck in these films - in L'eclisse there's the flight to Verona, for instance, or the scenes depicting their love affair (but Vitti's hand hanging out of the sofa for a moment is shot in the same way as the hand of dead drunkard who stole Delon's car, when they fish the car with him inside out of the lake... you wouldn't notice such tiny details necessarily, if you didn't know about it). Anyway, in L'avventura there's that whole trip they do, searching for the missing main character (another thing that's totally beyond what had been done in mainstream cinema before, I guess it would still be impossible to do that in a big Hollywood film), where they end up in that deserted valley and later when they're at a hotel in Noto, they climb up on a campanile and start playing with the church bells - that are wonderful moments of joy, and they're to be found in the films as well.

In short, I think what makes Antonioni special is that with his films, the spectator had to grow up, or had grown up. You can't really trust what you see, but there's absolutely no need to fill that void with any heavy theories of mis-communication and alienation. The more often I see these films, the more I'm simply stunned by their beauty!

(As for Blow Up, in one of the obits I read that it was the film capturing best that "swinging London" style and mood... I don't know if that's true, but Antonioni himself was an astute observer, and that's one point going in favour of him. However, I have never found Blow Up and even less Zabriskie Point coming even remotely close to the fascination of his great masterpieces done in the earliest 1960s.)

*

And one most central point I forget: how Antonioni treats everyday life, how he brings small actions and things into images, in a way that it was never done before. The opening of L'eclisse is a perfect example for that. The sound of the fan that you can hear before you can see it, how the fan turns into the most lively actor in the room, while Rabal sits in his armchair like a zombie, not making the tiniest move.
And out of his treatment of things, another observation, about his treatment of architecture. Again L'eclisse is most fascinating, with the scenes shot in the stock exchange of Rome (done on location), where he kind of turns the building into a (morphing) actor itself... they keep a minute of silence (done in realtime, of course) for a deceased broker, and with just a couple of new camera positions, he establishes that most worldly of buildings as a sacral church-like room. Very, very fascinating!
And all of that is done with an ease and lightness that betrays the huge amount of work that must have been done behind the scenes.

*

Will catch Antonioni's Il deserto rosso a second time tonight (already saw it on Saturday, for the very first time) [EDIT: I DID NOT, ALAS!].
Definitely the most dated of the four great films of his, but Vitti alone is stunning! Sort of the contrary to Cassavetes/Rowlands' "A Woman Under the Influence", on the extreme quiet side, with madness as a shock and unableness to act, rather than the artificial extreme business of Rowlands'.
And there's yet another great Fusco score, and the colours of the film (all pastels) are fascinating, too.
It's a big parable, in the end - madness isn't the diagnosis for Vitti, rather it's the diagnosis for the whole society, while she who is said to be crazy, is actually the sane, sensitive person. That kind of story wouldn't be told today, and if it would, it would never be done in such a total way... even more so that makes it a fascinating film, extremely suggestive!

***

In between I also caught Preston Sturges' dear film The Lady Eve, with Barbara Stanwyck outdoing herself!

*****

Alright then, I guess no one's still reading by now, so I'll wind it up with a couple of short remarks:

My edit of a recent Mike Gibbs seed on dime (Southampton 1983 - fantastic show):
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=168731

My fixed re-seed of a great Ellington show on dime:
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=166945

*****

And then to end, here's a promise for some new stuff to be uploaded here sometime soon (meaning: a week or two - doesn't work faster, I'm sorry! Still need to cut some stuff - all unreleased/radio material!)